Pumpkin be ailing me

An Update: Brewing went sort-of ok. Made a big mess of things and lots of stuff didn't go exactly how I would have liked it. But such is the art.

 

Just wrapped up completely prepping my kitchen for brewday tomorrow. Scrubbed and sanatized 40+ bottles, cleaned fermenters, prepped ingriedients, cleaned racking canes and siphons. The recipie I'll be making can be found here, or for the lazy I've listed it below

Recipe Type: Partial Mash Yeast: Safle US-05 Yeast Starter: No Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: No Batch Size (Gallons): 5 Original Gravity: 1.056 Final Gravity: 1.014 IBU: 18 Boiling Time (Minutes): 60 Color: 12 Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 4 weeks @ 164-168 Additional Fermentation: n/a Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): n/a Tasting Notes: To be determined. Moon Hill Pumpkin Ale ***See important notes at bottom *Updated in separate post with FG readings, pictures, and tasting notes. Ingredients Extract 1 lb light DME (60 mins) 3 lbs Pale LME (15 mins) 1/2 lb brown sugar (15 mins) 8 oz wheat DME (15 mins) Base Grains (Mash) 2 lbs pale 2-row malt 3/4 pound Maris Otter Specialty Grains (Mash) 6 oz Caramel Munich 4 oz Briess Victory 4 oz Biscuit Malt 8 oz Briess 2 Row Caramel 80 Hops .75 oz Mt Hood Hops (60 mins) 5.5% AA .5 oz Hallertauer Hops (30 mins) 3.6% AA Extras 3 15 oz cans of pumpkin (2 cans for mash, 1 can for boil) 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (2 min)  (The following are fresh grated) 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg , 1/8 tsp allspice (2 mins) 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (flame out) Yeast Safale US-05

I have some modifications I might make, but I'll wait till tomorrow to make the final call. 

 

 

Summer Magic

This is the last week of summer. Looking over my Summer Bucket List I see things that we did, tried to do, and never attempted to do. Much like I had expected it to turn out. In the coming weeks I'll try to be posting a recap and some of the pictures of everything we did. When I wrote that list Joseph wasn't even a thought in my mind. It amazes me to think that I almost didn't try out for that show. It ended up consuming most all my summer free time, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

None of my summer adventures would have happened without my wife right there going on them with me. Between her and a great group of friends, there was a lot of great memories made this year. 

I've created a similar list of things I'd like to do this Fall but it's not as adventureous as the summer was. More time will be spent on indoor things, movie watching, book reading etc. I'm also getting deep into Brassworks, which is a project I'll be writing more about later. I'm really excited to be getting back into beer brewing, which is getting underway this fall also. This Saturday has me brewing and bottling, so I'll be sure to post some updates for that.

Also, for Fall I've decided to start posting on my tumblr again. Basically it's where I put any cool thing I find during my long time spent on the internets. If you like cool things, then I'd say you're probably cool enough to check it out 😉

Also in full swing is this years Improv class. Really excited to be doing that again. I'm working with CYT Portland Eastside in preperation for auditions for Portlands first Improv team. It's an exciting time and my calander is filling up already. 

Broseph final thoughts

A month have passed since Joseph closed. New friends were made with the hopes that it won't be another year before we possibly could see each other again. I could write a bunch of cliche things about how the lights have faded from the stage andthe makeup has worn off, and it is mostly true. I would like to believe I will do more theatrical endeavors this fall but chances are slim. I will, however, always have the memories. 
One memory in particular happened a few weeks before we moved into the theatre. All of the brothers got together with Jeremy, our directory, for a night of bonding, junk food, and character work. Getting 12 guys together in itself usually spells insanity; 12 theatrical guys is a perfect storm. I knew it was going to be a great night when we decided to start playing indoor softball. The evening ended with the brothers sitting down and hammering out importent character details. Even though few of us  had any solo moments, by building character traits and motivation we give ourselves a basis to perform the entire show. I realized as we went along this was not that unlike building a character in a RPG, so I kept that in my mind as I filled out descriptions. I had done some historical reading on my character, Gad, and was trying to use that as a basis myself. One of the things I had noted was Gad was describe as having great strength. Using this I defined myself as a fighter/warrior. Typically I play a more roguish character so this was very out of line for me, but I felt it was a powerful aid in pushing me past my limits.